Eileen Hay, RN, CDE, with The Bellevue Hospital’s (TBH) Cardiac Rehabilitation and Diabetic Education Departments, is one of 75 finalists from around the State of Ohio for the Ohio Hospital Association’s (OHA) Albert E. Dyckes Health Care Worker of the Year Award.

Tim Buit, left, Vice President of Finance, Chief Financial Officer at The Bellevue Hospital (TBH), presents a gift basket to Eileen Hay, RN, CDE, TBH’s nominee for the Ohio Hospital Association Albert Dyckes Healthcare Worker of the Year Award. Also taking part are Denise Bullion, RN, and Michael K. Winthrop (right), President and CEO of TBH.

Eileen Hay, RN, CDE,
with The Bellevue Hospital’s (TBH) Cardiac
Rehabilitation and Diabetic Education Departments, is
one of 75 finalists from around the State of Ohio for
the Ohio Hospital Association’s (OHA) Albert E. Dyckes
Health Care Worker of the Year Award. The winner and
all nominees will be honored in June at a banquet in
Columbus.

"I am honored to accept
this award. My co-workers have always been supportive
and this helps to make my job so fulfilling and
gratifying. It is a privilege to represent TBH,” said
Hay

Janet Runner, Vice President of
Patient Care Services at TBH, said about Eileen, “She
is an outstanding nurse. She is able to combine
critical thinking with compassion, experience with
imagination. As Booker T. Washington said, ‘Excellence
is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.’
Excellence in care is Eileen’s motto, and every one of
her patients benefits from her gentle, common ways.”

The nomination of Eileen for the award reads in
part: Mary “Eileen” Hay, RN, CDE, has been employed at
The Bellevue Hospital since September 1972.
During her 37 years of employment and
various nursing roles, Eileen has always incorporated
education of herself, her fellow employees, her
patients and their loved ones into the healing
process. She’s seen by her staff as their mentor as
she helps them find their special niche in healthcare,
directing them on how to best utilize their talents
while striving to be the very best they can be.

She is a great team leader as she
leads by example. She pushes herself to set and
achieve extraordinary goals and continues to search
for methods of improving the health of the patient.
For instance, she recognized the importance of
cardiac rehabilitation and diabetic education, and
worked to establish both programs more than twenty-two
years ago in our 50-bed hospital, and in the process
brought this type of healthcare to individuals who
would not have had the opportunity to participate, and
thereby has affected, changed and saved lives because
of her progressive leadership.

She
continues to upgrade equipment, technology, techniques
and certifications in the ever-changing healthcare
environment.

When Eileen looks
around her, no matter where she is, she is looking for
a way she can be of service, anyway she can help make
things better. Once she sees what needs to be done,
she immediately starts working to make it come true.
She has presented programs for hundreds and for less
than 10. She gives programs at her church and will go
wherever she is asked to educate.

She’s proactive in the treatment and
prevention of diabetes in the young, and has worked
with the schools and PTOs in Bellevue & Clyde,
formulating programs to teach teachers how to better
manage students with diabetes in their classrooms and
she works with the students as well.

She was a pioneer in the area of Patient
Education before it was the thing to do. Her
rehabilitation patients comment that Eileen finds
them to answer their questions – sometimes before
they even know they have a question, she knows them
and their health so well. And it’s easy to ask her a
question, and better yet, she answers it in a way they
understand. She’s concerned about them and includes
them and their loved ones in developing their
healthcare plans.

Eileen faces
challenges, searches for opportunities to improve, and
never stops creating with a “shoe string” or no budget
to improve residents of Ohio healthcare.
She has worked in our Medical/Surg unit,
in the Emergency Department and in ICU. In each area
she recognized the need to help the patient recover so
they wouldn’t come back. Today she is working even
more diligently in developing ways to get to the
patient earlier -- in preventing disease.
She is a self-starter in bringing
excellence in the education and treatment of diabetes,
pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation. She has set up
a comprehensive Diabetic Self-Management Program and
Cardiac/Pulmonary Rehab Program with a support groups
for each group. In 1994, she met the
CDC criteria for diabetic education and was awarded
the Model Diabetes Education Program by Ohio Diabetes
Control Program and Bureau of Chronic Disease by ODH.
Her programs were the first in our area to have
received Program Certification through the American
Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary
Rehabilitation. She received her Certified Diabetes
Educator certification in 1992. She is
a member of the Ohio Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation
Association; the American Association of
Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation; and the
American Association of Diabetes Educators.

Eileen
and herfamily are active in
their church. She uses her nursing background to help
educate her community about positive life-styles,
changes that can dramatically improve their health and
make a difference in their lives. An example is the
picnic she developed for Type 1 diabetic children to
attend that combines family, education and fun.

She is also always looking for ways to
help find funds for patients without insurance or the
ability to pay. She will write grants, be active in
fundraisers, and make personal requests. There is no
organization too big or requests too small if she is
able to help a patient in need.

Eileen is available to patients at any
time to answer their questions. It’s important to her
to be there for them, as she knows anyone with a newly
discovered illness can be upset and sometimes afraid,
but with Eileen as their instructor, they will not be
alone. This is also true in her patient’s follow-up
care; she is persistent and professional but never
pushy. Ask her patients and they say, she’s like
Santa Claus, she knows if they have been naughty or
nice, if they are exercising and reducing their carb
intake.

In 1988, Eileen developed
and has since maintained successful diabetic education
and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation programs. She has
championed these programs and won support through the
deliver of professional treatment and successful
outcomes of her patients.

Her
dedication to her patients is legendary. One morning,
in the hospital’s parking lot as she was walking from
her car, another employee backed into Eileen. Her leg
was injured. After being seen in the Emergency
Department, she came into work for her patient’s
scheduled appointment times.

Eileen is one of eleven children and her
mother was a teacher. All of Eileen’s siblings have
selected careers that are educationally oriented
carrying on her family tradition of achievement and
academics.

Because of her
dedication to her profession, Eileen works with a
researcher at the University of Toledo Medical Center
to further an understanding of diabetes and the impact
of diabetic education on the disease.

She is active in the American Diabetes
Association and American Heart Association. She
serves on several committees including the Certified
Diabetic educators from six local hospitals, serves as
the chairman of the Diabetic Self-Management Education
Program. She attends state and national conferences
for diabetic and cardiac educators, often at her own
expense, to bring back the latest information and best
practices to her patients.

Eileen
was also instrumental in developing the hospital’s
Wellness Committee Program.

Eileen
Hay, RN, CDE, has worked at The Bellevue Hospital
since 1972 and has been instrumental in developing
successful diabetic education and cardiopulmonary
rehabilitation programs. These programs, along with
the various support groups, and community events,
touch the lives of thousands of people and make a
positive impact in our community.

It is her caring and dedication to nursing
and education that continues to positively effect
people’s lives.

Her patients are
never alone in their journey to a healthier
life-style; her staff sees her as their mentor and
says she cares about them as individuals with unique
talents; her community benefits from her ongoing
programs and screenings; her hospital benefits from
her leading by the examples of dedication,
professionalism and progress.”

Every hospital in the state was invited to
nominate one person for the Dyckes Award, which was
created in 1996 to honor a hospital employee who
demonstrates leadership, reflects the values and
ideals of Ohio’s health care facilities, goes above
and beyond the call of duty, gives back to the
community, and has overcome odds to succeed.